TSX Venture dips, Feb 4-8: Max Resources, Bonterra Resources, Redzone Resources

The TSX/S&P Venture Composite Index slipped 1.7% to end the trading week at 611.94.

Shares of Max Resource rose 111% to 38¢. The company recently expanded the zone through surface work at its 1,757 sq. km Choco precious metals project, 100 km southwest of Medellin, Colombia. The company found a gold-bearing conglomerate (called “Outcrop 2”) 7.5 km south of known mineralization.

The company has dug six small trial pits into the property and sampled two mineralization outcrops over a 36 sq. km area. It is processing between 25 and 50 kilograms of random samples from the pits to test for free gold. A similar amount of chip samples from the outcrops will see processing, as well.

The company says it observed free gold in the first sample from each of its first five trial pits, and adds that bulk sampling Choco’s surface is the most practical method to determine grade and lateral extent of the project’s mineralized system. It says the central part of its system could be 12 metres thick.

The company’s Choco district produced 1.5 million oz. gold and 1 million oz. platinum between 1906 and 1990, at depths generally less than 8 metres below surface.

Shares of Bonterra Resources fell 38¢ to $2.19, on news that the company’s CEO Nav Dhaliwal and vice-president of exploration Dale Ginn were resigning from their roles and as directors. Bonterra chairman Greg Gibson will act as interim CEO. He noted in a prepared statement that Dhaliwal and Ginn would remain consultants to Bonterra. The company is exploring extensions of its Gladiator gold deposit in Quebec near its Urban-Barry mill. The company plans to table an updated resource estimate for all its Quebec projects soon. To focus on exploration, the company has put all mining operations on care and maintenance.   

Shares of Redzone Resources spiked 60% to 16¢, after the company announced initial due diligence float sample results from its newly optioned West Leinster lithium property in the Republic of Ireland. The company found two spodumene-bearing pegmatite occurrences at its property grading 1.78% lithium oxide and 0.99% lithium oxide in flat boulders. The exploration team also mapped anomalous, lithium-bearing alpite and pegmatites with beryl, apatite and orange garnets. It says its lithium mineralized samples travelled less than 500 metres from their source.

The company collected 70 samples at West Leinster and confirmed lithium mineralization at its Aghavannagh target and its Tonygarrow target, with samples grading 1.78% lithium oxide and 0.99% lithium oxide. Due diligence continues for soil geochemistry lines at Aghavannagh. The company can earn up to a 90% interest in the property, with cash payments and $4.5 million in exploration, and a preliminary economic assessment on the project within five years.